MORAN — Larry Manes supposes his outlandish shirts reflect his personality.
He’s comfortable wearing satin and sparkles. Bright purples and reds. Paisley. Geometric designs. Polyester.
“I make it a point to wear something with a little pizzazz,” he said.
Behind the show is his wife, Nelda Cuppy, who to date has sewn him 38 shirts that could make a rainbow seem lackluster. Cuppy also sews for herself, but prefers understated colors with an eye to detail.
Manes and Cuppy, married 20 years this August, are two mathematicians who met as faculty at Allen County Community College.
Manes, 66, even on a day when he’s feeling under the weather, speaks with a theatrical flare about his early childhood and growing up the son of a railroad repairman.
Manes takes that a step further for explanation.
“As a repair foreman he didn’t repair the tracks, but the freight cars themselves. From the wheels on bottom to the roof of the cars,” he said. The job moved the family around the Midwest and sparked an early interest for things mechanical for young Larry, who took up stock car racing as a hobby.
Born in Springfield, Mo., Manes moved to Kansas City as a youth, graduating from Shawnee Mission North High School.
From there he attended Pittsburg State University where his first semester’s performance, prompted officials “to advise me not to return,” he said.
He took the hint and joined the U.S. Navy “to see the world.” Instead, he was stationed in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he studied nuclear energy in the development of the aircraft carrier the USS Enterprise, which was powered by nuclear energy.
After the Navy, Manes returned to Kansas City no less directed.
For the next five years he floated among jobs, including that of hauling waste, working as an auto mechanic and in auto salvage, all the while taking classes at Johnson County Community College.
When he had accrued enough credits for an associate’s degree he returned to PSU.
“I had four years’ worth of a GI Bill to pay for an education,” he said, by then eager for the opportunity.
In 1973 he earned a degree in economics. By 1975, he had a master’s in the same field.
Shortly thereafter he accepted a position at ACCC for what he thought would be a one-semester position. That turned into a 24-year career over which he taught a variety of courses including banking, agriculture finance, robotic drive systems, geology, income tax preparation and even creative writing.
Manes retired in 2000.
Not that he’s slowed down. Manes is concluding his eighth year as a trustee for the college, and has filed for a third four-year term.
In summers he drives a school bus twice a week transporting area children to Iola Municipal Pool. He and Nelda are also active in Moran Ruritan and Moran’s Thrive Allen County group.
Cuppy, 69, is as equally understated as her husband is gregarious.
Born in Bronson, Cuppy also attended PSU where she majored in math.
From there she and her husband, Gary (Butch) Cuppy, and their two children, moved to Moran where she taught math, physics and chemistry. During this time she also completed her master’s in math, which led her to a position at ACCC in 1969 where she taught math and computer science.
Their 30-year marriage was cut short by his death in 1989.
She and Larry were married in 1991.
The two live in the same home Cuppy has had since the early 1960s.
CUPPY CREDITS her sewing skills “to a good high school home economics teacher,” she said. She began sewing large items such as sleeping bags, backpacks and down coats. Hats were once her fancy. Today she does high-detail projects such as paper quilting and clothing. Her own shirt that day was a network of pleats that flowed out from a tasteful collar.
The pair use their travels as an occasion to shop for fabric for Larry’s shirts. Cuppy’s son, Larry, takes them as far south as Sulphur, La. Her daughter, Jo Cuppy, married to Walter Palmisano, also lived in Louisiana for a spell. Jo now works at ACCC in adult basic education.
“I like to go to the party fabric sections,” Larry said of where fabrics with a high sheen factor predominate.
Cuppy indulges her husband’s whimsical tastes.
“We couldn’t both be in the same room if I dressed the same,” Cuppy said, keeping in mind the glare factor such fabrics produce.
Manes said he makes it a point to wear an especially colorful shirt when he attends the quarterly meetings of the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees.
Other factors give credence to Manes’s personality. Back 35 years ago he finished in the top 10 in stock car racing for three years straight at the now defunct Riverside Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
He also has a flair for precious metals. Since a youth, Manes has made annual trips to southwestern Colorado where he mines for silver.
Which may be why one of his favorite shirts is decorated with silver studs.
